


“Emmé Harwood, Second Handmaiden in the Third Class for Padmé Amidala”

by Polgarawolf



Series: Star Wars: You Became to Me [23]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: F/F, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Handmaidens, Injury, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), POV Original Character, Sacrificial ethics, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-23
Updated: 2007-10-23
Packaged: 2017-11-13 08:48:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/501659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polgarawolf/pseuds/Polgarawolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is fifteen random but chronological moments from the life of Emmé Harwood, who is, quite literally, the second handmaiden in the third training class of potential handmaidens chosen from among a large pool of applicants for the job for the newly elected Nabooian Queen Padmé Amidala. There is an actual story here – one small thread among the vast woven tapestry of life that is the living history of the galaxy, stretched out and twisted, knotted into the whole, curled down among the roots of time, connecting various moments together – but one must read between the lines to capture it. It is not precisely the truth, for the subtle story of these moments is sketched out here in words, and, in the sin of writing down a life, it inevitably changes the shape of things. But it is nevertheless a form of truth. (From a certain point of view . . . )</p>
            </blockquote>





	“Emmé Harwood, Second Handmaiden in the Third Class for Padmé Amidala”

**Author's Note:**

> **Warning:** This story functions as a sort of compressed codex for Emmé Harwood’s life, as she is going to be written (or at least referred to) in my not even nearly complete AU **Star Wars** series **_You Became to Me_**. If anything doesn’t make sense, please feel free to ask!
> 
>  **Author’s Notes: 1.)** Again, for anyone interested, this not-quite-a-story is compatible with my SW AU series **_You Became to Me_** , including my _Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith_ trio, if you squint at a couple of things sideways and view a few others solely through the lens of Emmé Harwood’s eyes. **2.)** Although this is technically modeled on a prompt set that I borrowed from somewhere or another on the LJ (I really don’t recall from where anymore, precisely, though if someone would like to set the record straight, I’ll add the info for the community in question here in my notes), it’s not really meant to function as a response to whatever the challenge actually is that’s associated with said LJ prompt set. I just used the specific prompts to give me a reason to string together a backstory of sorts for Emmé. **3.)** Readers might want to consider the fact that Emmé, like a lot of native Nabooians, is fairly strong in the Force, but that she hasn’t received any training whatsoever to speak of and so has no real conscious control over that sensitivity to the Force. **4.)** Readers interested in knowing who the physical models are for original characters like Emmé should please consult the latest versions of my posted lists of cast original and EU characters and for handmaid(en)s and other important Nabooian characters, which are available on my LJ! For clarity’s sake, though, Emmé is modeled on a teenaged Emily Browning, Dhabis Naldona can be pictured as a young (not quite twenty, at the time of his death) Tom Payne, Ullamé and Dallone Harwood can be pictured as Katharine Ross and Sam Elliott, and Davin Harwood can be pictured as a young (approximately twelve and a half, at the time of the Trade Federation’s invasion of Naboo) Liam Aiken. Please note that characters who may be alluded to but not referenced by name (certain family members of original characters, for example) are considered too minor to be cast at this time, and readers should feel free to imagine them howsoever they wish! **5.)** Handmaidens often tend to pair off, as is the case here, with Emmé Harwood and Betté Steadhart, a fellow handmaiden from the same training class (hence, the relationship label for original female characters and the underage warning). **6.)** Speaking of pairings, I've labeled this to indicate both Padmé Amidala's and Sabé's love for Obi-Wan, because, even though it may not be specifically mentioned in this character study piece, handmaid(en)s know so much about their sworn Lady that readers can be certain that Emmé, like all of Amidala's other handmaid(en)s who knew him (or knew of him), would have surely known about both their Lady's and Sabé's love and high regard for Obi-Wan, just as they would have known about how much Amidala and Sabé love one another!
> 
>  **Story Notes:** **1.)** Since this is part of a larger on-going AU series that in some respects fairly closely mirrors or follows events of canon (up to a certain point, anyway), readers should please keep in mind that certain characters and events from the prequel movies/novelizations of the films and even events/places/people referenced in the EU or Expanded Universe may be mentioned or alluded to in this story. If anyone has any questions about whether someone or something is AU, canon, or EU canon, please feel free to ask! **2.)** Readers should probably be aware that I am roughly estimating (guestimating might be a better word) the original publication date for most of the character study pieces in the **_You Became to Me_** series (and indeed most of my stories, especially the ones written over a long period of time), based on when I roughed out notes for them in the story notebooks I carry everywhere with me and when I can recall having worked on certain groups of characters. The year is going to be accurate, but the month might be off and the day will almost certainly be randomly chosen, since the online account I had originally posted many of these stories to no longer exists. I tend to go back and edit things that are in series whenever I get the time or a new idea causes me to have to make room for something else plot-wise, and odds are good that a story could have been edited for typos as recently as the day of its posting here, but the original version will likely be much older and fairly close to the publication date that I attach to it, if anyone's curious!

**“Emmé Harwood, Second Handmaiden in the Third Class for Padmé Amidala”**

 

 **01.) Blood:** She can’t remember her blood family, the Naldonas, at all: except for her and her baby brother, Davin, the Naldona family was taken by a rather virulent virus (something like influenza, only much, much worse, if not quite so bad as an actual hive virus) that apparently was brought to their fair world by an extremely ill frigate pilot (who unfortunately didn’t _quite_ manage to kill himself by crashing into a part of the Kwilaan Starport) when Davin was barely two months old and she was not quite two and a half, and their only living close blood relation was a first cousin of their father’s who also succumbed to the sickness, less than a month after taking them in, so the Harwoods – a kindly older couple who (fortunately for her and her brother) happened to have a summer retreat home by Lake Varum practically next door to where their cousin, Dhabis Naldona, made his home, on the outskirts of Keren, and who took her and her brother in after Dhabis’ untimely death, fostering them gladly and only failing to adopt them legally because they were just past the age when the state generally allows such adoptions to take place when the ones involved are not in some way related by blood or by marriage or otherwise in some form tied to or allied with the family of the children in question – have been her family as long as she can remember, and she and her brother both chose to adopt the Harwood surname as their own, whether it was technically entirely legal to do so or not.

 **02.) Broach:** The Harwoods are prosperously upper-middle-class and their own three children are all grown and married and quite comfortably settled, so the Harwoods have felt free to make arrangements to see to it that she and her brother will inherit essentially all of their estate (except of course for some family heirlooms and keepsakes and trade interests and such that are being left to their children and grandchildren), which is the only reason why she finally feels brave enough to broach the subject of applying for one of the handmaiden positions for the new Queen, since she knows that Davin will be well taken care of no matter what may or may not happen to her, should she become a handmaiden.

 **03.) Proud:** Ullamé and Dallone don’t particularly approve of the amount of danger she’ll doubtlessly be in, as a handmaiden, but they’re quite proud of her for wanting to serve, and Davin is practically fit to burst, he’s so proud of her and thrilled at the notion that she’ll be working in the royal court and protecting the Queen, so she gets an application together and submits it, and then waits breathlessly to hear back from the Palace.

 **04.) Like:** She’s basically of age with the Queen (only a few months older), is brunette and fair-complexioned and somewhat petite and slender of build, like the Queen, and she’s smart enough that she’s been able to get a degree in political science and diplomacy with an emphasis in comparative law that’s almost enough to yield her another degree in law itself, so she’s not too worried about her chances of being rejected, as a potential handmaiden candidate, even if her eyes do have as much green in them as they do amber and her nose is both longer and straighter and her mouth is much fuller than the Queen’s and her brown hair is naturally straight and does have somewhat reddish highlights and her face is both rounder and softer of features than the Queen’s, not to mention probably as close to an oval in overall shape as it is to being heart-shaped, so that she really doesn’t look all that much like Amidala at all (except maybe from behind), save for in the most vague of senses.

 **05.) Offer:** Everything’s been happening so quickly since the new Queen’s election that she’s almost not surprised to find out she’s already missed the cut-off dates for the first two training groups; happily, though, she manages to submit her application in time to be the second to receive an offer for the third training class, and, though she will miss her little brother dreadfully and worry about the Harwoods while she is gone, she’s so excited at the prospect of doing something to help make a difference in the world that she packs her things and heads to the Palace as soon as she’s able to, even though it means she will be there for over three days before they plan on gathering up the training class and transporting them to wherever it is that most of their physical instruction and practice will occur.

 **06.) Flame:** Amidala is even more lovely and gracious and good and kind and caring and charismatic in person than Emmé ever could have possibly imagined or believed – a true living flame of a woman, as she later hears one of her fellow handmaiden trainees remark, effortlessly shedding light and warmth and illuminating and drawing out the good in everyone she meets – and Emmé feels honored and humbled just by the thought of being considered worthy enough to act as a guardian and chosen companion for such a Queen, especially after she has seen with her own eyes how very much her principal handmaidens (especially Sabé, the young Queen’s best friend and primary decoy, who is also one of the unofficial heads of the whole handmaiden program) so obviously and whole-heartedly adore Amidala.

 **07.) Special:** She’s not the first in her class to have arrived at the Palace: a young girl by the name of Dormé Tammesin (who looks eerily like Amidala and Sabé, though to be fair her hair is perhaps half a shade darker and she is yet young enough that she may not have finished growing and so could conceivably end up not looking nearly so much like her Queen, when she has finally grown into herself fully) has preceded her, and, though she gathers that the Queen had not known this girl before, personally, she can tell that the Queen thinks she is something special (and not just because the girl will likely be one of her decoys) from the amount of time she and Sabé make to speak with her, and it makes Emmé powerfully curious about the girl.

 **08.) Unsuitable:** There is a girl in their training class who strikes her quite obviously as being untrustworthy and unsuitable for the life of a handmaiden, and, for the life of her, she cannot understand why the rest of the whole class can’t see it, too, or what Captain Panaka could have been thinking, to believe that this Rosé Ganesa would be a suitable handmaiden for the Queen.

 **09.) Over:** They’re hardly at Varykino at all before they’re recalled to the Palace for active duty, and things begin to happen so very rapidly, then, that it isn’t until nearly a month later, when it’s all over with and the Trade Federation and its droid armies are all gone, that she really has enough time and space and energy to even try to process it all.

 **10.) Blind:** She would have to be blind not to see that the Queen and Sabé both have fallen in love with that heroic young Jedi who slew the Sith, and she has to wonder what kind of horribly depersonalizing training he must have gone through, as a Jedi initiate and Padawan learner, to be able to be so intelligent and so perceptive when it comes to other people and yet to so obviously think so little of himself that he is so very plainly oblivious even to the idea that someone could ever think highly enough of him and care so much about him as to truly love him that he cannot see how devoted Amidala and Sabé are to him.

 **11.) Obscene:** They lost so many handmaidens during and just after the Trade Federation’s invasion and occupation of Naboo that it seems somehow obscene that the danger for the Queen could actually manage to increase rather than decrease, once the planet is safely theirs again; the Trade Federation obviously does not care to be thwarted, though, and, too, there is the possibility of at least one more Sith Lord out there, somewhere, furious and vengeful over having had either an apprentice or a Master slain (though she rather suspects that it was that apprentice who was killed, given how long the Sith have apparently managed to survive undetected by the Jedi. It makes more sense that it would be the Master who would be shrewd enough to survive, though without some kind of hard evidence there’s really no way for them to be absolutely certain of which it was, Master or apprentice, who died in that melting pit) and a scheme hinging on Naboo’s continued occupation by the Trade Federation ruined, so perhaps it isn’t so surprising, after all, that there should be so many more attempts on the Queen’s life, now that the danger is supposed to be past.

 **12.) Close:** She and one of the older girls in her original training class, Betté Steadhart, have been close ever since that brief week of intense physical training at Varykino, and so perhaps Emmé should not have been so surprised to be caught up in an all but crushingly tight embrace and kissed breathless, after yet another assassination attempt on the Queen’s life that happened to result in Emmé being slightly singed by a blaster bolt passing just a little bit too close; she’s just so used to thinking of herself as one of the few unpartnered handmaidens, though, that it simply hadn’t ever occurred to her that she might not remain so forever . . . at least not until after receiving the rather toe-curling kiss!

 **13.) Lost:** Two years after the Trade Federation crisis they are still having to deal with at least one serious assassination attempt a month, and they’ve lost so many of the newer handmaidens that, on her more cynical, tired days, she’s starting to seriously wonder if she should even bother trying to learn their names and be friendly with them, for hardly any of them (aside from a few random individuals from each new class) seem to last more than a few weeks or months before being cut down, and her heart aches with the weight of grief she (as a survivor) is being forced to carry around for them all.

 **14.) Poison:** It should not have happened this way – the poison gas should have taken her and Betté both, instead of just taking her beloved and damaging her lungs and nervous system so badly that not even the best of all of the Queen’s most renown Healers know how to take away her tendency towards asthma and occasional erratic bouts of uncontrollable tremors and spasms – and, if it were not for the loving care of her fellow handmaidens, who are as sisters to her, she is not sure that she could have stood it, to survive, thus.

 **15.) Service:** Dormé arranged for her to be transferred from active duty as a handmaiden at court to active duty as an instructor at Varykino in court protocol and etiquette as well as the niceties of Nabooian law and customs, and she is there for only a few months before she catches a saboteur trying to plant a bomb in the girls’ dormitory: it’s a close thing, but she’s at least as good a shot as the traitor, and so, as she lays there on the cold floor, feeling her life’s blood drain far too rapidly out of the wound in her side, she at least has the grim pleasure of contemplating the fact that she’s removed one more serious threat to the Queen . . . and that she managed to survive just over three and a half years of service before she finally failed to be quick enough to save herself, and Betté, whom she will be joining soon, will no doubt be incredibly proud of her, for that . . .

**Author's Note:**

>  **Clarification Note:** One of the reasons why my AU **Star Wars** series _**You Became to Me**_ is so entirely not even nearly complete has to do with the fact that I really started writing at the wrong end of the prequel trilogy for an AU (in my defense, though, when I started what became my _Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith_ trio, which is over a million words long, I thought I was doing a sort of one-shot fix-it based on an idea I got for "fixing" RotS by changing something that happens very near the end of James Luceno's EU novel _Labyrinth of Evil_ , which is set immediately prior to RotS). One of these days, I fully intend to rectify that problem by going back and starting from the beginning, with an AU rewrite of TPM, which is why I took the time to do a character study sketch for a supporting character like Emmé. She'll be showing up again, in a more prominent role, whenever I get around to that AU rewrite of TPM. Folks might want to keep that in mind when reading this, since technically this is spoilerish for an AU novel that I haven't gotten around to writing yet!


End file.
